You Can Now Make Your Toyota Lease Payments by Driving for Uber

Lease a Toyota and drive for Uber? Through a new partnership between the two companies, you can pay Toyota Financial Services through your earnings as an Uber driver.

The companies have new offerings that allow Toyota consumers to lease their vehicles and then cover their monthly payments through their earnings as Uber drivers.

Uber has entered into partnerships with a variety of automakers. It offers a “sign up to driveâ€ financing program that allows participants to receive discounts on purchasing select, new Toyota, GM, Ford, Nissan, Hyundai, Chrysler, and Volkswagen vehicles.

As ride-sharing services continue to disrupt the transportation industry, automakers have been left with little choice but to come up with creative new ways to integrate their products with these services.

GM invested $500 million into Lyft to launch a network of self-driving cars. It also created a short-term rental program called Express Drive where GM provides all-in rental cars to Lyft drivers, who will pay $99/week plus mileage to nothing at all; depending on how many Lyft rides they provide using the vehicles, according to a report from TechCrunch.

“Ridesharing has huge potential in terms of shaping the future of mobility. Through this collaboration with Uber, we would like to explore new ways of delivering secure, convenient and attractive mobility services to customers,â€ said Shigeki Tomoyama, senior managing officer of Toyota Motor Corp. and president of the Connected Co., one of Toyota Motor Corp.’s recently created in-house companies.

“We’re excited that Toyota, the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, is making a strategic investment in Uber as part of a broader global partnership. Toyota vehicles are among the most popular cars on the Uber platform worldwide and we look forward to collaborating with Toyota in multiple ways going forward, starting with the expansion of our vehicle financing efforts,â€ said Emil Michael, chief business officer of Uber.

Toyota and Uber have other collaboration plans including developing apps specifically for Uber drivers and setting up a fleet program to sell Toyota and Lexus vehicles to those who drive for Uber.

Samara Lynn is a technology journalist, covering the industry for a decade. Her work appears in The Wirecutter, Tom's Hardware, PC Mag, and other online outlets. She's the author of "Windows Server 2012: Up and Running" and previously worked in the IT industry. She's currently the digital manager at Black Enterprise.